New screens for downtown parking kiosks — I can see clearly now
Technician installs new screen at demonstration kiosk.
By MEL ROTHENBURGER
Night and day.
That’s the difference, literally, between the current screens in the 90 downtown parking kiosks and the kind being considered by City Hall. The “old” screen has been the subject of a lot of complaints because they’re so hard to read. People crouch, squint, shade their eyes and peer intently into them as they try to follow the instructions.
Armchair Mayor takes screen upgrade for a spin at City Hall.
Help may be on the way. A Parkeon technician installed a demonstration screen Wednesday in a kiosk in the City’s Parking Control office lobby at 6 West Seymour St. so the public can get a glimpse of what’s to come — or what might come if the new model is eventually approved.
The bigger, better screen is easy to read because visually it’s like a TV screen instead of an early-edition green-on-green computer monitor. The screen saver is a panorama of the city with a “Welcome to Kamloops” greeting. Clear printing for instructions appears on a white background, and it’s readable even from an angle.
“It’s a significant difference,” bylaw services supervisor Jon Wilson said today.
The speed with which the new screens will be installed, or even if, depends on cost. Some money was budgeted for a screen upgrade, Wilson said, but a price hasn’t been finalized with the vendor.
One possibility is that the new ones might be phased in, with the screens in the Victoria Street kiosks being swapped out first and others later, but Wilson said once people see the new screens, they’re going to want them in all the kiosks.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Here we go again with taxpayers and user fees covering for sloppy and poor management at City Hall. Remember the $45,000 spent on a property tax collection site at McArthur Island; the ‘bridge’ in Valleyview with huge cost overruns and now the repairs to Overlander which will come in with huge overruns. If they can’t manage testing of a significant purchase before installation I shake to consider what will happen in the future with big capital projects like the bridge repairs and Devers dream of airport beautification.
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I agree with both above. I suggest installing the first one where the contrast is the worst and proceed until the best current view would be the last to get the new screen.
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New screens will help a lot. Now, can the process be made faster? You have to wait for what seems like a very long time while the kiosk processes your information. This is not very pleasant in cold or wet weather.
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This is ridiculous ! These screens should have been there from the beginning. City staff is getting to be more, and more incompetent. Their goal is to install substandard equipment, and then upgrade it at some ridiculous cost to the taxpayer. Time for some overpaid heads to roll.
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